Patel Fires Five Tied to Anti-Catholic FBI Memo
“The FBI’s most fundamental principles is that investigative activity may not be based solely on the exercise of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
Five FBI employees tied to the bureau’s 2023 “Radical Traditionalist Catholics” memo were fired Friday, according to multiple reports. The four intelligence analysts and one supervisory analyst involved in drafting and approving the document had faced no discipline since the memo became public more than three years ago.
The news was first reported by Daily Wire reporter Mary Margaret Olohan, who said an FBI source confirmed the dismissals.
NEW: Five FBI employees were fired today over the infamous Richmond Catholic memo on “radical traditionalist Catholics,” FBI source confirms to @realDailyWire.
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 5, 2026
The Richmond Field Office produced the memo in January 2023. It examined what it described as a possible connection between “Radical Traditionalist Catholic” ideology and racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists, and discussed potential “tripwire and source development” opportunities within Catholic communities.
The document became public after a whistleblower provided it to Congress, triggering immediate backlash from lawmakers, religious liberty advocates, and Catholic organizations. Republicans argued the memo showed the FBI was scrutinizing Americans based on their religious beliefs.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland later told lawmakers he was “appalled” by the memo, while Wray repeatedly insisted the memo came from a single field office and was withdrawn once senior leadership saw it.
The FBI’s Rapid Response account posted on social media Friday:
True. https://t.co/AdtyispWwA
— FBI Rapid Response (@FBI_Response) June 5, 2026
FBI Director Kash Patel replied:
This FBI will never infringe on religious freedom.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 5, 2026
An FBI review cited in a 2023 letter to Congress found that employees involved in drafting, reviewing, and approving the document failed to follow analytical standards and improperly connected religious beliefs to violent extremist ideology without sufficient evidence.
“One of the FBI’s most fundamental principles is that investigative activity may not be based solely on the exercise of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
A 2024 Justice Department inspector general review found the same analytical failures but likewise found no evidence of malicious intent.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released documents last year showing that Wray’s repeated assurances about a single memo were incomplete.
FBI records he reviewed identified at least 13 additional documents and five attachments using the term “radical traditionalist Catholic” and citing the Southern Poverty Law Center. A second draft on the same topic was prepared for wider distribution, but never formally issued after the original memo became public.
The records also showed the Richmond memo had been distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees nationwide.
In a letter to Patel, Grassley accused the bureau, under Wray, of failing to fully disclose the scope of its work on traditional Catholics and of withholding key information from congressional investigators.
Their attorney, David Laufman, released a statement Friday:
“This action is manifestly unjust, completely unsupported by the facts, and subverts standard FBI policy and procedure. These individuals deserved far better for the exceptional and faithful public service they rendered to protect our country.”
The FBI declined to comment on the dismissals.
For critics of the Richmond memo, the firings signal that FBI Director Kash Patel considers the episode a serious violation of First Amendment protections, not simply an analytical failure.
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Comments
Firing is insufficient. Jail time and lost of pension benefits is necessary. Also, how far up the food chain did this corruption flow. I find it hard to believe everything started and ended in one field office.
Why did it take 18 months.
Civil service protections and unions. I’m surprised it only took 18 months.
It looks like political correctness on the right to me, which ought not to be tolerated either.
On the left it ruins action books, when it turns out that the bad guys are white supremacists or pedophiles. A failure of imagination.
Firing someone for manufacturing concerns and triggering – or trying to trigger – baseless investigations and monitoring without probable cause and based solely on first amendment activities is a justified firing and not at all firing someone for some form of “political correctness” or “cancel culture”
If they had expressed these concerns solely in a private forum outside of work then yes that would be a form of cancel culture.
“Do not discriminate” is hardly political correctness. Neither is “treat people fairly”. Biden’s FBI engaged in vendettas against people based on religious practices and free speech that they didn’t agree with.
Should you keep your eye on Muslim groups? That’s a religion. Making it an immunity is a mistake.
Subjugation under the guise of religion is not a protected right.
Keeping an eye on radicals of any religion is fine as long as focus is on the conduct, not their particular beliefs. The FBI cares about potential shooters and bombers; not what they believe. Certainly many shooters and bombers over the past 25 or 30 years has been Islamists but there cannot be an automatic assumption that Muslims are automatically terrorists.
The problem here is that the FBI focused on Catholics for being Catholics, not because of any documented plans for violence. Can you name some of the bombings or shooting by radical traditional Catholics during the same period? I don’t think you can.
Maybe you should re-read the First Amendment.
“”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;….”
Congress made no law that saying the Catholic liturgy in Latin was illegal. The FBI is entrusted with enforcing the law when the same amounts to a Federal crime.
This was a planned attack. I suspect the unseen hand of the SPLC, a distinctly Christian hating political trooper for the DNC of attempting to destroy said churches in America via these compromised dirty FBI “agents” this being but a effort among many. But on that I am willing to be corrected.
I just hope they did exit interviews. Under oath.
single attack out of many.
Don’t bother, he can’t read.
It’s a start, don’t stop routing out the Deep State operatives.
So we, the taxpayers, got to pay those aholes 3 years after that? Why did it take so long?
“These individuals deserved far better for the exceptional and faithful public service they rendered to protect our country.”
No. These people deserve a public execution as a reminder to those who blatantly infringe on religious liberty.
What about their pensions and lifetime Cadillac-level healthcare?
Fired FBI agent’s attorney: ““This action is manifestly unjust, completely unsupported by the facts, and subverts standard FBI policy and procedure.”
Is he talking about the actions of Patel or his own clients coming after traditionalist Latin-chanting Catholics as suspected domestic terrorists? In fairness, I can remember these sorts of Catholics scaring me, but I was then 4 years old attending my first Mass. (And, don’t get me started on the nuns that came later at Catholic school! Sic semper tyrannis!)
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